Big money and bad food

Practitioners feature | by Bill Tara | on: Friday, 17 December 2010

Every time a clebrity eats a piece of tofu I hear a round of applause from my fellow foodies. Aging rock stars who want to keep their trim looks and ex-presidents who grock the connection between diet and heart disease are certainly an inspiration - someone is paying attention anyway. The problem is that underneath the surface lurks the deadly reality of the food industry. Organic food sales are less than four percent of the food sales in America. To understand the size of this in industry terms, dollar volume of organic product sales (US 2009 - 24 billion) is only slightly higher than the total sales of "salty snacks" (US 2009 – 21 billion).

In my last note I talked about how the food industry is a major cause for starvation in the world. Now I turn my jaundiced eye towrard one of the ways that big business is allowed to continually ramp up the production of highly processed and industrialized food products , disaster capitalism.

For those of you who are not familiar with the concept it has been recently put forward by the author Naomi Klien in her 2007 book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism. Kline argues that social phenomena such as the war and Iraq and natural disasters such as hurricanes and floods are an opportunity for business to push through reforms in policies that might be unpopular in times of relative calm. This process of social opportunism is generally admired in the business community as a sign of sound practice. In the food industry the "disaster" being leveraged into big profits is the shortage of food to feed the world – there is no question that the disaster is real. The food shortages that have been predicted for the past forty years are now closing in on us in full force. Both the developed countries of the world and the emerging nations are feeling the crunch.

Don't Think Problem – Think Opportunity

One of the strategies of disaster capitalism is to allow all problems to develop fully before action is taken. Immediate action upon identification of an impending problem does not lead to maximum profit; the crisis must ripen. This means allowing a "concern" to become a "problem" before it matures into a "disaster". The disaster creates a vacuum into which are sucked a number of short-term fixes disguised as solutions; disasters do not require seventh generation solutions there isn't time for that – it's a disaster! You know that a disaster is impending when there is a counsel for moderation, or further study.

1. Farmers in Poverty – Land use

2. Increased Populaton – GM Foods

3. Fisheries Depleted or ruined – GM Fish and Pork

4. Concerns about nutriton – Nano Technology

5. Declining food quality – Increased use of falvoring agents

6. Rising food costs - Subsidies

7. During past economic downturns food prices stayed stable now the price of food is soaring. Food prices rose by nine percent in 2006, 24 percent in 2008 and 51% in 2009. In 2007 alone an additional 75 million people joined the ranks of the malnourished.

From the Executive Summary of Africa up for grabs published by Friends of the Earth:

"Access to land provides food and livelihoods for billions of people around the world, but as the availability of fertile land and water is threatened by climate change, mismanagement and consumption patterns, demand for land has been increasing."

"Land grabs" – where land traditionally used by local communities is leased or sold to outside investors (from corporations and from governments) are becoming increasingly common across Africa. Whilst many of these deals are for food cultivation, there is a growing interest in growing crops for fuel – agrofuels – particularly to supply the growing EU market."

These land grabs have been taking place against a backdrop of rising food prices which led to the food crisis in 2008. There were food riots in some developing countries and in Haiti and Madagascar the governments were overthrown as a result of the crisis. Crops being used for agrofuels was a major factor in the rising price of food.

This report looks at the extent of these deals for agrofuels and questions the impacts on local communities and the environment. It finds that although information is limited, there is growing evidence that significant levels of farmland are being acquired for fuel crops, in some cases without the consent of local communities and often without a full assessment of the impact on the local environment.

Extent of the problem

Studies suggest that a third of the land sold or acquired in Africa is intended for fuel crops – some 5 million hectares. Friends of the Earth has looked at cases of land grabbing in 11 countries across Africa, from Ethiopia to Mozambique (see appendix).

While some of this land is sold outright – to private companies, state companies or investment funds – most is leased and some is obtained through contracting with the farmer to grow specific crops (known as "out growing").

A number of, often small, EU companies are involved, sometimes with support or involvement from their national government. Many are keen to vaunt the social and environmental benefits of their business, offering employment and the promise of development to rural areas.

Green OPEC

Many of the host countries have encouraged this investment, keen to develop a potentially lucrative export crop. Fifteen African nations joined forces to set up what has been described as a "Green OPEC" and a number of national governments have also introduced domestic targets and strategies for agrofuel use at home.

But there is also a growing awareness of the downsides of this agrofuel boom. As scientists and international institutions challenge the climate benefits of this alternative fuel source, local communities and in some cases national governments are waking up to the impact of land grabs on the environment and on local livelihoods.

Jatropha the oil used for making biodiesel fuel is being grown in the Philippines and in Brazil, where it grows naturally and in plantations in the Southeast, and the North/Northeast Brazil. Likewise, jatropha oil is being promoted as an easily grown biofuel crop in hundreds of projects throughout India and other developing countries

Pressure on farmland has led to forest being cleared to make way for agrofuel plantations, destroying valuable natural resources and increasing greenhouse gas emissions. In Ethiopia, land inside an elephant sanctuary was cleared to make way for agrofuels.

Farmers have found that the much vaunted wonder crop jatropha, rather than bringing a guaranteed income, in fact takes valuable water resources and needs expensive pesticides. In some cases, food crops have been cleared to plant jatropha, leaving farmers with no income and no source of food.

Threat from genetically modified crops

What is more, there are concerns that biotech companies, keen to find new outlets for their products, will see agrofuels as a way into the African market. Research is on-going into genetically modified (GM) varieties which might be suitable for agrofuels, and biotech companies are eager to claim that their products can help tackle climate change.

Resource exploitation

Growing European and international demand for agrofuels as a transport fuel is creating market demand for agrofuels. While African politicians may promise that agrofuels will bring locally sourced energy supplies to their countries, the reality is that most of the foreign companies are developing agrofuels to sell on the international market. The EU's mandatory target for increasing agrofuels is a clear driver to the land grabbing in Africa.

The food industry has been criticised for being secretive about its use of The food industry has been criticised for being secretive about its use of nanotechnology by the UK's House of Lords Science and Technology Committee.

Lord Krebs, chairman of the inquiry, said the industry "wants to keep a low profile" to avoid controversy.

While there were no clear dangers, he said, there were "gaps in knowledge".

In its report Nanotechnologies and Food, the committee suggests a public register of foods or packaging that make use of nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is the use of very small particles - measured in the billionths of a metre. At these sizes, particles have novel properties and there is active investigation into how those properties arise.

While nanotechnology is already widely employed - in applications ranging from odour-free socks to novel cancer therapeutic methods - they have long been regarded as a subject requiring further study to ensure their safety.

In the food sector, nanotechnology can be employed to enhance flavour and even to make processed foods healthier by reducing the amount of fat and salt needed in production.